Hester Thrale
Hester Lynch Thrale, née Salusbury, later married Piozzi, ( born January 27, 1741 Bodvel Hall, Caernarvonshire, Wales; † May 2, 1821 in Clifton ) was an English author, salonière and patron of the arts. She was friends with Samuel Johnson, for her diaries are an important source.
Thrale Hester Lynch Salusbury was born and belonged to one of the richest landowner families in Wales. She was also a direct descendant of King Henry VII After her father, Governor of Nova Scotia, due to a failed investment in the Canadian Halifax became bankrupt, she married on October 11, 1763 the rich brewer Henry Thrale, with whom she had twelve children and lived in Streatham Park. In London she gained access to literary circles about Samuel Johnson and Oliver Goldsmith and cartridged the young writer Frances Burney, with whom she traveled to Bath. Samuel Johnson was introduced with her in January 1765. He was the central figure of the intellectual circle which met at Mrs.Thrale. There he had a permanent guest rooms and often worked in the library in Thrales house in Streatham Park, which was supplemented on this recommendation. Johnson, who dedicated some verses praising her that " the joke of her speech was an ever- bubbling spring " (Her colloquial wit was a fountain of perpetual flow). In 1774 he traveled with the Thrales to Wales and in 1775 to Paris. Famous guests of her salon were Joshua Reynolds portrays (eg Goldsmith and Charles Burney, and also several times Hester Thrale and her family). After the death of her husband in 1781, she married in 1784 the Italian music teachers ( teachers of their children) Gabriel Mario Piozzi ( 1740-1809 ), which led to a break with Johnson (who died shortly thereafter ), but also many friends and relatives turned away from her from. With her husband she traveled to Italy in 1787 and moved to the country (country " Brynbella " ) in North Wales in the valley of the Clwyd in Tremeirchion, where she is also buried in the Corpus Christi Church. Is on a plaque in the church: " Dr. Johnson's Mrs. Thrale. Witty, Vivacious and Charming, in at age of Genius She held ever a foremost place ".
It is an important source for the life of Samuel Johnson ( apart from James Boswell's "Life of Johnson "). After Johnson's death in 1786, she published " Anecdotes of the late Samuel Johnson ' ( 1785 written in Florence) and 1788 two volumes of " Letters to and from the late Samuel Johnson ". Their diaries are an important source of Johnson and social life in 18th-century England. They also released in 1789 travelogues ( " Observations and reflections made in the course of a Journey through France, Italy and Germany", German 1790), 1785 "The British synonymy, or to Attempt to Regulate the Choice of words in Familiar Conversation" and 1801 " Retrospection or a Review of the Most Striking and Important Events, Characters, Situations and Their Consequences Which the load Eighteen Hundred Years have presented to the view of mankind ".
Her oldest daughter was Hester Maria Elphinstone, Viscountess Keith ( called Queeney, a nickname her the Dr. Johnson gave ), ( 1764-1857 ). She was also a literary patron and wife of Admiral Lord Keith ( George Elphinstone ). Letters to her from her mother and Dr. Johnson have been published as "The Queeney Letters" 1934.